Friedrich
Robert DonatRobert Donat (18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an
English film and stage actor.[1] He is best remembered for his roles
in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips
(1939), winning for the latter the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Donat was also a successful stage actor, despite the challenge of
chronic asthma from which he suffered.

Contents

1 Early life and career
2 Stardom
3 Later life and career
4 Death and legacy
5 Filmography
6 References
7 External links

Early life and career[edit]
Donat was born in Withington, Manchester, the fourth and youngest son
of Ernst Emil Donat, a civil engineer of German origin from Prussian
Poland, and his wife Rose Alice Green.[2] He was of English, Polish,
German and French descent and was educated at Manchester's Central
High School for Boys. He took elocution lessons with James Bernard.
Donat made his first stage appearance in 1921, at the age of 16, with
Henry Baynton's company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham,
playing Lucius in Julius Caesar. His real break came in 1924 when he
joined the company of Shakespearean actor Sir Frank Benson, where he
stayed for four years.[3] Donat married Ella Annesley Voysey
(1903–1994) in 1929; the couple had three children together but
divorced in 1946.
Stardom[edit]
"The British cinema's one undisputed romantic leading man in the 1930s
was Robert Donat", wrote
Jeffrey Richards in his book The Age of the
Dream Palace.[4] "The image he projected was that of the romantic
idealist, often with a dash of the gentleman adventurer."[5]
Initially, around 1930 and 1931, he was known as "screen test" Donat
in the industry because of his many unsuccessful auditions for film
producers.[6] MGM's producer
Irving ThalbergIrving Thalberg spotted him on the London
stage in Precious Bane, and Donat was offered a part in the American
studio's Smilin' Through (1932). He rejected this offer.[5] Instead,
Donat made his film debut in a quota quickie
Men of TomorrowMen of Tomorrow (1932)
for Alexander Korda's London Films. An abysmal screen test for Korda
had ended with Donat's laughter.[7] Reputedly, Korda in response
exclaimed: "That's the most natural laugh I have ever heard in my
life. What acting! Put him under contract immediately."[6] Donat's
first great screen success soon followed in his fourth film. This was
as
Thomas Culpeper in
The Private Life of Henry VIIIThe Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) for the
same producer.[8]
Korda loaned him to
Edward Small for the only film Donat made in
Hollywood, The Count of Monte Cristo (1934).[9] He did not care for
the film colony and, despite being offered the lead role in Captain
Blood (1935),[10] returned to Britain to begin work on Alfred
Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) opposite Madeleine Carroll.[10] His
performance was well-received: "Mr Donat, who has never been very well
served in the cinema until now, suddenly blossoms out into a romantic
comedian of no mean order", wrote the film critic
C. A. Lejeune in The
Observer at the time of the film's release. Lejeune observed that he
possessed "an easy confident humour that has always been regarded as
the perquisite of the American male star. For the first time on our
screen we have the British equivalent of a
Clark GableClark Gable or a Ronald
Colman, playing in a purely national idiom. Mr Donat, himself, I
fancy, is hardly conscious of it, which is all to the good."[11]
Hitchcock wanted Donat for the role of the Detective in Sabotage
(1936), but this time Korda refused to release him.[12]
In 1936 Donat took on the management of the
Queen's TheatreQueen's Theatre in
Shaftesbury AvenueShaftesbury Avenue where he produced Red Night by J. L. Hodson.[2] He
made two further films under his contract with Korda, The Ghost Goes
West (1935), and
Knight Without ArmourKnight Without Armour (1937). Korda became committed
to the latter project because of Donat's indecision. Madeleine Carroll
had read the James Hilton novel while shooting The 39 Steps, and had
persuaded Donat that it could be a good second film for them to star
in together. Donat acquired the rights and passed them on to Korda,
although by now Carroll was unavailable.[13] His eventual co-star,
Marlene Dietrich, was the source of much attention when she arrived in
Britain, in which Donat was involved, and this was enough for him to
suffer a nervous collapse a few days into the shooting schedule. Donat
entered a nursing home.[13] The production delay caused by Donat's
asthma led to talk of replacing him. Dietrich, contracted by Korda for
$450,000, threatened to leave the project if this happened, and
production was halted for two months, until Donat was able to return
to work.[14]
In 1938, Donat signed a contract with MGM British for £150,000 with a
commitment to making 6 films.[15][16] In The Citadel (1938), he played
Andrew Manson, a newly qualified Scottish doctor, a role for which he
received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Donat is best remembered for his role as the school master in Goodbye,
Mr. ChipsMr. Chips (1939). Australian film critic Brian McFarlane writes:
"Class-ridden and sentimental perhaps, it remains extraordinarily
touching in his Oscar-winning performance, and it ushers in the Donat
of the postwar years."[17] His rivals for the Best Actor Award were
Clark GableClark Gable for Gone with the Wind,
Laurence OlivierLaurence Olivier for Wuthering
Heights,
James StewartJames Stewart for
Mr. Smith Goes to WashingtonMr. Smith Goes to Washington and Mickey
Rooney for Babes in Arms.
He was a major theatre star. His stage career included performances in
Shaw's
The Devil's DiscipleThe Devil's Disciple (1938) and Captain Shotover in a new
staging of
Heartbreak HouseHeartbreak House (1942). With
The Cure for Love (1945) by
Walter Greenwood, one of the stage productions he directed, he began
his professional association with Renée Asherson, later his second
wife.[18] This continued with a production of Much Ado About Nothing
(1946) with the couple playing Benedict and Beatrice.
Donat lobbied hard for two film roles: he was cast in neither. He
wanted to play the Chorus in Olivier's Henry V, but the role went to
Leslie Banks, and he longed desperately to be cast against type as
Bill SikesBill Sikes in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), but Lean thought him
wrong for the part and cast
Robert NewtonRobert Newton instead. The MGM British
contract ended with litigation, and he made only two more films for
the company,
The Adventures of TartuThe Adventures of Tartu (1943), with
Valerie HobsonValerie Hobson and
Perfect Strangers (1945) with Deborah Kerr.
Later life and career[edit]
Donat suffered from chronic asthma, which affected his career and
limited him to appearing in only twenty films.[19] Donat and Asherson
reprised their stage roles in the film version of The Cure for Love
(1949). His only film as director, its production was affected by his
ill health.[18][20] The film's soundtrack had to be re-recorded after
shooting was completed because Donat's asthma had severely affected
his voice.[21] Modestly received by a reviewer in the Monthly Film
Bulletin, and described as "pedestrian" by
Philip FrenchPhilip French in 2009, it
was a hit in the North. In this film, Donat used his natural Mancunian
accent, which his early elocution lessons had attempted to completely
suppress.[22][23] Donat married Asherson, his second wife, in 1953.
They later separated, but might have reconciled.[20]
He was cast as
Thomas BecketThomas Becket in T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
in Robert Helpmann's production at the
Old Vic TheatreOld Vic Theatre in 1952, but
although his return to stage was well received, his illness forced him
to withdraw during the run.[21] The same reason also caused him to
drop out of Hobson's Choice (1954). Scheduled to play Willy Mossop, he
was replaced by John Mills.[24] Author David Shipman speculates that
Donat's asthma may have been psychosomatic: "His tragedy was that the
promise of his early years was never fulfilled and that he was haunted
by agonies of doubt and disappointment (which probably were the cause
of his chronic asthma)."[25] David Thomson also suggested this
explanation,[26] and Donat himself thought that his illness had a 90%
basis in his psychology.[4] In a 1980 interview with Barry Norman, his
first wife Ella Annesley Voysey (by then known as Ella Hall),[27] said
that Donat's asthma was a psychosomatic response to the birth of their
daughter. According to her: "Robert was full of fear."[28] Lease of
Life (1954), made by Ealing Studios, was his penultimate film in which
Donat plays a Vicar who discovers that he has a terminal illness.[21]
Donat's final role was the mandarin Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth
Happiness (1958). His last spoken words in this film, an emotional
soliloquy in which he confesses his conversion reducing Ingrid Bergman
as the missionary to tears, were the prophetic, "We shall not see each
other again, I think. Farewell." Several months after his death, Donat
was nominated for his first Golden Globe and received a National Board
of Review
SpecialSpecial Citation for his performance.
Death and legacy[edit]
He died on 9 June 1958 aged 53 in London. His biographer Kenneth
Barrow writes on the cause of his death: "Perhaps the asthma had
weakened him but, in fact, it was discovered he had a brain tumour the
size of a duck egg and cerebral thrombosis was certified as the
primary cause of death."[29]
Donat has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures at
6420 Hollywood Blvd. A blue plaque commemorates Donat at 8 Meadway in
Hampstead Garden Suburb.[30] His place of birth at 42 Everett Road in
WithingtonWithington is also commemorated by a similar plaque.[31] The
architectural photographer, John Donat (1933–2004), was his son[32]
and the actors
Peter Donat and
Richard Donat are his nephews.
Filmography[edit]